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THE LIBERTY BELL 



INDEPENDENCE HALL 



PHILADELPHIA 




liY 
CHARLES S. KEYSER 



1 90 1 



©ONGRESS, 
Two CohES Received 

NOV. IG t90t 

COPVRlaHT ENTRY 



OkASS 



'J 



.^ xxc. »o. 

OOIT *> . 



COPYRIGHT 

CHARLES S. KEYSER 
igoi 



DuNLAP Printing Co.," Publishers: 

1332-36 Cherry Street 

Philadelphia 



INDEPENDENCE HALL 



Independence Hall, Philadelphia, comprises three main build- 
ings. A central structure — the State House with offices adjoin- 
ing — and two separate buildings, one erected for the city and 
the other for the county ot t^hifaclelfliia. 

The central building was designld and built by Andrew 
Hamilton, a Barrister of Philadelphia.' The two others, the lots 
for which he procured,. and for the eriction of which he created 
a trust, were not built until after thi close of the Revolution. 
The whole together his a frontage ^n Chestnut street of 396 
feet, and was at the ti^ie q£ iits completion the largest building 
for State and municipal purposes in the country. 

The story of its construction is as follows: On the first of 
the third month 1729 the representatives, as they styled them- 
selves, of "the free men of Pennsylvania." in General Assembly 
met, determined to build a house for themselves, having been 
up to that time obliged to hire private houses for their sittings. 
The Act in manuscript still exists and is in the handwriting of 
Andrew Hamilton. 

On the nth of August, 1732. Mr. Plamilton exhibited a plan 
and elevation of the house or building, — the central building 
as it now stands, and the same being compared with several 
other plans and elevations, was approved, and the House, after 
consideration, resolved, that Mr. Hamilton be the person to 
superintend and govern the building, and that the House for his 
trouble would make him compensation. 

Mr. Hamilton, to meet the requirements for the better preser- 
vation of the public papers of the Province, produced in 1732, 
on the 23d of March, a plan for the two offices adjoining the 
State House. 

On the 15th of September. 1735, Mr. Hamilton took his seat 
as President of the Assembly in the State House, then so far 
finished as to admit of occupancy by that body. The offices 
adjoining were also almost completed, and the building, offices, 
and ground vested in Trustees. 



6 THE LIBERTY BELL. 

On the 20th of 12th month, 1735, Mr. Haniihon conveyed to 
Trustees two lots, one at the corner of Sixth street and one at 
the corner of Fifth street, for the City and County of Philadel- 
I'hia. for the erecting upon the same two buildings by the City 
and County. "The buildings to be of like form, structure, and 
dimensions, one for the use of the City for holding its courts, 
and one for the use of the County for like purposes." In these 




ANDREW HAMILTON. 

last davs of his life work, he thus secured one harmonious design 
for the whole structure as it now stands. 

Sixth month, nth, 1739, he retired from the service of the 
Province in a representative capacity by reason of his age and 
infirmities, but continued in his duties as Superintendent of the 
State House until his death. On the occasion of his retiring 
from both the Speakership and membership of the House, he 
uttered these sentiments, which are worthy of i)reservation for 
all time: 



THE LIBERTY BELL. j 

'"As the service of the country should be the only motive to induce 
any man to take upon him the country's trust, which none ought to 
assume who find themselves incapable of giving such a constant attend- 
ance as the nature of so great trust requires, and as you are witnesses 
of the frequent indispositions of body I have so long labored under, 
particularly during the Winter season (the usual time of doing business 
here), and being apprehensive that by reason of my age and infirmities, 
which daily increase, I may be rendered unable to discharge the duty 
expected from a member of the Assembly, I therefore hope that these 
considerations alone, were there no others, will appear to you sufficient 
to justify the determination I am come to, of declining the farther ser- 
vice of the Province in a representative capacity. 

"As to my conduct, it is not for me to condemn or to commend 
it; those who have sat here from time to time, during my standing, 
and particularly those several gentlemen present who were members 
when I first came into the House, have the right to judge of my 
behavior and will censure or approve it as it has deserved. But what- 
ever that may have been. I know my own intentions, and that I ever 
had at heart the preservation of Liberty— the love of which as it first 
drew me to, so it constantly prevailed upon me to reside in this Prov- 
ince, though to the manifest prejudice of my fortune." 

While still in the completion of this work (174 1, Aug. 4) 
Air. Hamilton's life work ended. At this time the whole main 
building- as it now stands and the wings were externally com- 
plete. 

In 1741, Xovcmber 4th, the tower was raised with the usual 
jollities on the occasion. In 1742 the offices were entirely fin- 
ished. 

1743. November 14th, the court room (the west chamber) and 
piazzas between the chief buildings were finished. 

In 1745 the Assembly room was finally completed, curtains 
hung, covers put on the chairs, a press for papers bought, a 
silver inkstand for the Speaker's table, which is still preserved; 
two open stoves for burning fuel procured, two pairs of and- 
irons, and two pairs of tongs. 

In 1747 the western chamber on the second floor was finished 
for the Governor's Council. In 1750 a building was carried up 
on the tower with a suitable place to hang a bell. 

The material of the building is brick, stone, marble and wood. 
The coignes are Westchester serpentine, faded by age; it is a 
green stone used now in large cjuantities. The marble came from 
quarries near the Schuylkill, it is a blue and white marble; the 
bricks arc of the red clay of Philadelphia. 



8 THE LIBERTY BELL. 

All these have lasted in a remarkable manner, the marble 
onlv being in any measure affected by long exposure to the 
weather. The roof was shingled. All the rafters were of oak 
and came from near the City; the greater part of these remain. 
The workmen were of various nationalities. 

The central building, the State House, is one hundred and 
seven feet in length and fony-five in width; the first floor is 
divided into two rooms, each forty feet square with ceiling twenty 
feet high: these rooms are divided by a hallway twenty feet wide, 
extending from north to south through the building to a broad 
stairway which gives access to the second floor; the room on 
the east side is on the left and the room on the west side is on 
the right as you enter from Chestnut street; the second floor 
is divided into one room called the long room, extending one 
hundred feet on Chestnut street by twenty feet in width, and a 
west and east room of the same width on the south side of the 
building; the ceilings of these rooms are sixteen feet in height; 
the steps of the stairway are six feet in length with a rise of 
six inches. 

The room on the east side first floor is the Declaration 
Chamber; on the west side, the Supreme Court room of the Prov- 
ince; the long room on the second floor was the banquetting room 
for colonial entertainments; the east room on this floor was occu- 
pied by the Clerks of Assembly, and the west room by the Gov- 
ernor's Council.* 

The County building was begun 1787 and was finished 1789. 

The plan of the City building was determined upon in 1775; 
in 1789 the inhabitants of the City then created a corporation 
by the name of the Mayor, Aldermen and citizens of Philadel- 
phia, authorized its building, to be a City Hall of the same di- 
' mensions and form of the County building, then just finished. 
The work was forthwith commenced and the building finished 
in 1791. 

These buildings remain externally substantially as they were 
built, except that the County building has been lengthened thirty- 
seven feet; the ground floor was, as first built, in one room, with 
a vestibule extending along the whole front of the building. 

The dimensions of these two buildings were the same — and 

* The whole building has the same appearanre as in the Revolution, it was a few years 
since restored throughout by the Philade'.phi i Chapter of the Daughters of the American 
Revolution and the City of Philadelphia. 



THE LIBERTY BELL. 



in every particular the external construction in style and material 
was the same. Each building- was fifty feet wide, divided cen- 
trally by a doorway, and sixty-five feet eight inches long. 

The Congress of the United States occupied the Countv 
building from its third session, 6th of December, 1790, until the 
seat of Government was removed to Washington in 1800; Wash- 
ington was inaugurated in this building for his second term as 




GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

President of the United States, March 4th, 1793. and John Adams 
was inaugurated here for the same office March 4th, 1797, the 
Representatives in the Congress occupied the lower floor, the 
Senate occupied the floor of the second story.* 

The Supreme Court of the United States held its first session 
on the second floor of the City building, beginning first ^Monday, 
7th February, 1791; John Jay, John Rutledge and Oliver Ells- 
worth were the Chief Justices during the period of its occupa- 
tion, which continued until the 15th of August, 1800. 

*This chamber is in the care of the Colonial Dames, who restored it to its original 
appearance. 



lo THE LIBERTY BELL. 

THE NOTABLE EVENTS IN THE DECLARATION 

CHAMBER. 

May loth, 1775, the Continental Congress sat in this room 
from this date to the close of the Revolution except when in 
1776-7 it met in Baltimore. December, January and February, 
and 1777-8, when the City was in the occupation of the British 
Army. 

June i6th, 1775, Washing-ton accepted in this room his ap- 
pointment by Congress as General of the Continental Army. 

July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted. 
It was also signed in this room. 

July 9th, 1778, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual 
Union between the States were adopted and signed in this room. 

November 3d, 1781, the twenty-four standards taken at the 
surrender of Yorktown were laid at the feet of Congress and of 
his Excellency, the Ambassador of France, in this room. 

September 17th, 17S7, the Constitution of the United States 
was adopted and signed in this room. 



THE LIBERTY BELL. 

"And proclaim liberty throughout all the laud unto all the inhabitants 
tJwrcof : it shall be a jubilee unto you." 

Among the bells of the world no one has been associated 
with events of as great import to humanity as the Liberty Bell. 

Its prophetic inscription, its appeals to the people to assem- 
ble for the redress of their grievances, and its defiant clangor 
that memorable day of the Declaration of our Independence, 
its rejoicing pealings over the completed work of the Revolution, 
and its last tolling over the dead of the nation, gives its story 
an abiding interest to the nation and the world. 

The Assembly of Pennsylvania customarily had in its posses- 
sion, a bell for official purposes, from the organization of the 
Province. Its ordinary use was to call its members together, 
morning and afternoon during its sessions, and to announce 
the hour of the opening of the Courts of Justice to the people. 



THE LIBERTY BELL. ii 

Its most stately use was to announce the proclamation of the 
accession of a member of the royal family to the throne and the 
proclamation of the treaties of peace and declarations of war. 
The bell, which following this customary use, announced the 
proclamation of the Declaration of Independence, was ordered by 




THE LIBERTY BELL. 

the superintendents of the State House, Isaac Norris, Thomas 
Leach and Edward Warner, from the agent of the Province in 
London, Robert Charles, in 1751. It was required to weigh about 
two thousand pounds and to be lettered with the following words 
"well shaped, in large letters:" "By order of the Assembly of 
the Province of Pennsylvania for the State House in the city of 



12 ' THE LIBERTY BELL. 

Philadelphia, 1752." and underneath, "Proclaim liberty through- 
out all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." 

It was cast by Thomas Lester, Whitechapel, London. The 
Bell arrived at the end of August. 1752, and was hung. Early 
in September, however, it was cracked by a stroke of the clapper 
without any other violence and thereupon recast by Pass & Stow, 
two ''ingenious workmen," in Philadelphia,''' and hung April lyjh,.'" ^ ^ 
1753. Li the recasting the same metal was used with the addi- 
tion of an ounce and a half of copper to the pound to make the 
bell less brittle. The same form and lettering were preserved with 
the substitution of the names and place and year of recasting it 
now bears. It was recast by them, the first casting not being- 
satisfactory, and the same year again hung in the State House. f 

The Bell is twelve feet in circumference around the lip and 
seven feet six inches around the crown; it is three feet following 
the line of the l)ell from the lip to the crown, and two feet three 
inches over the crown. It is three inches thick in the thickest 
part near the lip, and one and a quarter inches thick in the thin- 
nest part toward tlie crown. The length of the clapper is three 
feet two inches, and the weight of the whole is two thousand and 
eighty pounds. 

It is lettered in a line encircling its crown with the sentence: — - 

Proclaim LIBERTY THROUGHorT aix the LAND unto ali. 
THB Inhabitants thereof, Lev. xxv, v, x. 

Immediately under this sentence, also in a line encircling its 
crcjwn : — 

By Order of the Assembly of the Province of Pen- 

SYLVANIA FOR THE STATE HoUSE IN PhILADA. 

Pass and vStow. 

PlIILADA. 

MDCCLIII. 

* NoTK. — " Philadelphia, June 7, 1753— Last week was raisc<l and fixed in the State House 
steeple the new j;;reat bell cast here by Pass & Stow weijjhiiiK 20S0 pounds with this motto: 
'Proclaim liberlv throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.' " Lev. 25, 10. — 
Maryland Gazelle, July 7, 1753. 

t The Bell a-s last placed in the steeple remained there until the steeple was taken down, 
July 16, 17S1 ; it was then lowered into the tower where it remained until 1846 ; it was then 
taken inside the Declaration Chamber below and rt'inained there until 1S76. It was then 
placed in its old frame in the hallway and remained there until 1S77 when it was hung from 
the ceiling of the hallw y by a chain of thirteen links. It was returned again to the 
Declaration Chamber and placed in a glass case the fjllowiiig year and in 1S96 it was taken 
back to the hallway in the same case where it still remains. 



THE LIBERTY BELL. ij 

The case in which it is kept is four-sided, of heavy plate glass 
framed in white oak; each plate is four feefw!de and seven feet 
high; the entire case is ten feet high. The Bell is suspended in 
it from the old yoke on which it hung in the Revolution; it rests 
on each side on two bronze uprights. The whole stands on a 
movable platform. When it rang for the Declaration it hung in 
a heavy wooden frame; the frame was ordered by the Assembly 
when the Bell arrived in 1753. it was taken down from the steeple 
with the Bell in 1781 (July 16) and placed in the tower below 
where it still remains. A leaden canopy was over the Bell and 
frame while it hung in the steeple. 

The model of this Bell was one cast by order of Henry III. 
in the early part of the thirteenth century in memory of Edward 
the Confessor, which was hung in the clock tower of Westmin- 
ister, and was named St. Edward, but generally known as the 
"great Tom of Westminister." 

The Ringers of the Bell were Edward Kelly, 1753-5; David 
Edward, 1755-8; Andrew McNair, 1759-76 (September 15), the 
Ringer of the Proclamation of Independence. The last Ringer 
of the Bell was Thomas Downing, 1827-36. 

At the time of ordering the bell from Thomas Lester, the 
Assembly reserved the right to send the bell they then had in 
use to the firm in part payment for the new^ bell, as appears from 
a resolution of the Assembly, August 13. 1754. They, however, 
eventually determined to keep the old bell for public use and 
pay the whole charge for the new Bell. This old bell was again 
used when the Liberty Bell was taken down into the tower in 
1781, and from that time on probably struck the hours, as no 
account of the purchase of any other bell appears in their pro- 
ceedings. 

The Liberty Bell has been removed from the Iniilding on four 
occasions: the first, during the Revolution, September, 1777, and 
when taken from the city to New Orleans, January 23, 1885; 
Chicago, April 25, 1893; Atlanta, October 24, 1895. 

The frame has never been taken from the building from the 
time it was first placed there in 1753, except for a short time 
during the restoration in 1898, until the present time. 



14 



THE LIBERTY BELL. 



THE RESOLUTION FOR INDEPENDENCE. 



June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee offered in Congress his 
resolution for the Independence of the Colonies: 




PICHARD HENRY LEE. 

"Resolved. That tlicse colonies are and of right oup;ht to be free 
and independent States, that tliey are al)solved from all allegiance to 
the British Crown and that all political connection between them and 
the State of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved. 

"That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures 
for forming foreign alliances. 

"That. a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the 
several Colonies for their consideration and approval." 

This resolution with notes made during- its passage in the 
handwriting of Richard Henry Lee is now in the Museum of 
]\evolutionary Relics in the State House, Philadelphia. 

John Adams seconded the resohvtion and was one of its most 
strenuous supporters, but so great was the individtial resi)onsi- 
bility considered, in introducing it in case of its failure in adop- 



THE LIBERTY BELL. 



15 




JOHN ADAMS. 

tion. that neither the name of the mover nor the seconder appears 
on the journal In order that no time might be lost in the event 
of its passage, a committee of five consisting of Thomas Jeffer- 
son, Benjamin Frankhn, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and 
Robert R. Livingston was appointed to prepare a declaration in 
conformity with it. They were chosen by ballot on the nth of 
June; Thomas Jefferson was made its chairman. On the 28th 
of June, the committee submitted a draft of the paper and the 
first day of July was fixed for final action upon it. \On the 2(1 
of July the resolution for independency was passed finally. 
Congress then resolved to take into farther consideration the 
Declaration, and on tlie 3d and 4th of July, it was debated, para- 
graph by paragraph. IJuly 4th, 1776, in the evening, the Declar- 
ation was adopted." /To that hour the colonies had been united 
in a common spirit of resistance to its exactions, but kept a wav- 
ering loyalty to the P.ritish crown ; from that hour, a line of scpa- 
lation broke irregularly through all orders and conditions of the 



i6 



THE LIBERTY BELL. 



people, wholly revolutionary. It was no longer a question of 
the rights of the Englishmen or their representatives, but "the 
dissolution" by the various nationalities here, the very large 
majority of the whole population, of "all political connection 
between them and the State of Great Britain" and "all allegiance 
to the British Crown." 

The same evening Congress ordered that the Declaration be 
authenticated and printed; that the committee who brought in 
the Declaration be ordered to correct the press.* 




THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



( )n llic 5lh of |ul\' Congress resolved llial copies of the 1 )ec]a- 
ralion be sent to the several asscml)lies, conventions and councils 
of safety and the several officers of llie Continental troo])s, and 
that it be ])roclaimed in each of the United States and at the 
liead of the armw Tliese co])ies were ])rinted and ready for dis- 
tribution on the ()tli."t' 

* Am. Arch. V. Series. Vol. 3, p. 15- 

t These copies bore only the signature of the President, John Hancock, and the attesta- 
tion of the Secretary, Charles Thomson. 



THE LIBERTY BELL. jj 

That day the Committee of Safety in Philadelphia sent the 
copies they received to the committees of Bucks, Chester, 
Northumberland, Lancaster and Berks Counties, with a letter re- 
questing that the same be published the following Monday, the 
8th instant. They then ordered that the Sherifif of Philadelphia 
read or cause to be read and proclaimed this Declaration at the 
State House on that day, and that he cause all his officers and 
the constables of the City to attend the reading. 

They further resolved that every member of the committee 
in or near the city be ordered to meet at their chamber before 
twelve o'clock that day to proceed to the State House, where the 
Declaration was to be proclaimed, and that the Committee of 
Inspection be forthwith requested to attend the proclamation 
at the State House. On the same day, the Conuuittee of In- 
spection having received and accepted the invitation, appointed 
nine associators to go into the State House on that day and 
lake from the King's Court, the King's arms, and place them 
on a i)ile of cask-s to be erected on the commons for the purpose 
of a bonfire. 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 
In congress, July 4, 1776. 

A DECLARATION 

l',\ THE REI'R ESKNTATI\'ES ok the 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

In (^z E N E R a L CONGRESS a s s e m i; led. 

WHI-2N in the Course of Human Events, it becomes necessary for 
one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have con- 
nected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers 
of the Earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws 
of Nature and Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opin- 
ions of Txlankind requires that they should declare the causes which 
impel them to the separation. 

\\'c hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are Created 
e(|ual: that they arc endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable 
Rights; tiiat among these, are Life. Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happi- 
ness. Tiiat. to secure these Rights. Governments are instituted among 
Men. deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that, 
whenever any Eorm of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, 
it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it. and to institute new 
Government, laying its I-'oundation on such Principles, and organizing 



l8 THE LIBERTY BELL. 

its Powers in such Form, as to tlicm shall seem most likely to effect 
their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Govern- 
ments long established, should not be changed for light and transient 
Causes; and, accordingly, all Experience hath shown, that Mankind are 
more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right them- 
selves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But, 
when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the 
same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, 
it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to 
provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient 
Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which 
constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The 
History of the present King of Great Britain is a History of repeated 
injuries and Usurpations, all having, in direct Object, the Establishment 
of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be 
submitted to a candid World. 

He has refused his Assent to Laws the most wholesome and neces- 
sary for the public Good. 

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and 
pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent 
should be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to 
attend to them. 

He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large 
Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of 
Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and 
formidable to Tyrants only. 

He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncom- 
fortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the 
sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures. 

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing, 
with manly Firmness, his Invasions on the Rights of the People. 

He has refused, for a long Time after such Dissolutions, to cause 
others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Anni- 
hilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise: the 
State remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the Dangers of In- 
vasion from without and Convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the Population of these States; for 
that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; 
refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising 
the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. 

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, l)y refusing his 
Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers. 

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of 
their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries. 

He has erected a ^Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms 
of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without 
the consent of our Legislature. 

He has affected to render the Military independent (if, and superior 
to. the Civil Power. 



THE LIBERTY BELL. 



19 



He has combined, with others, to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign 
to our Constitution and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving liis Assent 
to their Acts of pretended Legislation: 

For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us: 

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any 
I^Iurders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: 

For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World: 

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: 

For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefit of Trial by jury: 

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended OfTenses: 

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring 
Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging 
its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument 
for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies: 

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, 
and altering, fundamentally, the Forms of our Governments: 

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves in- 
vested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Pro- 
tection and waging War against us. 

He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, 
and destroyed the Lives of our People. 

He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercena- 
ries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already 
begun, with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy scarcely paralleled in 
the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized 
Nation. 

He has constrained our fellow Citizens, taken Captive on the high 
Seas, to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of 
their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. 

He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeav- 
ored to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers the merciless Indian 
Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare is an undistinguished Destruc- 
tion of all Ages. Sexes, and Conditions. 

In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress, 
in the most humble Terms: our repeated Petitions have been answered 
only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by 
every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free 
People. 

Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. 

We have warned them, from Time to Time, of Attempts made by 
their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We 
liave reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settle- 
ment here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity. 
and we have conjured them, by the Tics of our common Kindred, to 
disavow these Usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our Con- 
nections and Correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the Voice 
of Justice and Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the 



20 



THE LIBERTY BELL. 



Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them as we hold 
the rest of Mankind, Enemies in Wan in Peace, Friends. 

We, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF 
AMERICA, in Gener.\l Congress Assembled, appealing to the 
Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, 
m the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, 
solemnly Publish and Declare. That these United Colonies are, and of 
Right ought to be. Free and Independent States; that they are ab- 
solved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political 
Connexion between them and the State of Great Britain, is. and ought 
to be, totally dissolved; and that, as Free and Independent States. 
they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, 
establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Inde- 
pendent States may of right d^-*. And, for the support of this Declara- 
tion, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we 
mutually pledge to each other, our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred 
Honor. 

Signed by order an<l in l)olialf of the Congress. 

JOHN HANCOCK. President. 
Attest : 

CHARLES THOMSON. Secretary. 



THE PROCLAMATION OF THE DECLARATION. 

On the morning- of the 8th, between the hours of eleven and 
twelve, the great Bell in the State House rang the proclamation. 
At eleven o'clock the Conmiittee of Safety assembled in their 
chamber (the Lodge), to attend the proclamatioiC There were 

present (ieorge Clymcr, Chairman, 
Joseph Parker, James Middle, Da- 
vid Rittenliouse. ( )wen l*>iddle. 
Thomas Wharton. Jr.. Alichacl 
1 iillegas, jdlui ra(hvaladcr.( icorge 
(IraN, Sannu-1 Howell, Samuel 
Morris. James Mease and John 
Xixon. 

At tlic sanu' hour the Committee 
of ln>peciion met at the I'hilo- 
sophioal Mail and ])roceeded in a 
body to join the Conmiittee of 
Safety. The two bodies, the Com- 
mittee of Safety preceding, then 
GEORGE CLYMER. went two by two in proces- 




THE LIBERTY BELL. 21 

sion to the State House yard. The order of the procession 
was: — first, the constables with their staffs; the Sheriff, WiUiam 
Devvees, and the coroner. Robert Jewell, and their deputies car- 
rying the white wands of their office; the members of the Com- 
mittee of Safety as named above, preceded by the Chairman, 
followed these, and after them the Committee of Inspection in 
a body. 

After these ordinarily, according- to the custom of the times, 
would have followed the "town's gentlemen;" these were con- 
spicuous by their absence; some were sequestered in their man- 
sions, others were in the neighboring jails. 

That day the colonies were in the midst of the Revolution. 

The upper rooms of the State House were magazines for arms ; 
east and west of it, in barracks, were munitions of war. The yard 
was enclosed with a wall, a great gateway on its south side. 
Separated by a street's width from the gateway ran the dark 
walls of a prison overlooking the yard, from the windows of its 
upper stories. Cannon were ranged along the sides of the yard; 
guards of soldiers were near them. Wagons carrying ammuni- 
tion, powder, and military stores to the city were standing here 
and there. Some trees were along its borders, notably two 
willow trees hanging over the great gate; for the rest, it w^as 
rough ground, broken l)y the ruts of the wagon wheels and the 
lioof prints of the horses. 

The stand frt)m which the Declaration was to be read was a 
platform built out from an old observatory toward the east side 
of the yard; it was surrotmdecl b}- a railing and reached by a 
stairway from the ground; all around it was open to the sunlight. 
/There was a large assemblage of the people there, resolute 
men, who had, that morning, been sunnnoned by the ringing of 
the great Bell, for their Independence, as they had been many 
times before for the redress of their grievances under the British 
crown^ Through the grated windows of the prison, men looked 
down on the crowd with hatred, contempt or indifference; a 
number of respectable citizens, in the new nomenclature of the 
times "Tories," had been haled there by the Committees of the 
people; their names, titles and lineage preserved at the time, 
have long years ago passed into oblivion. With these were 
debtors, prisoners of war, and felons of all grades. 



22 



THE LIBERTY BELL. 




Passing through the assem- 
blage, the Committee reached, 
by the stairway, the platform; 
the Bell ceased ringing. John 
Nixon, to whom the Sheriff had 
delegated the reading, stood np^ 
in the silence; he was a strong 
voiced and open featured man; 
he had been and remained true 
to the struggle to his life's close. 
Tie began the reading with the 
words ''In Congress July 4. 1776, 
i\ Declaration of the Represen- 
tatives of the United States of 
America." This opening sen- 
tence was received with applause 
and throughout the whole read- 

JOHN NIXON .^^g.^ ^^,,^i^.j^ ^^.^^^ gQ ^^,^|i,3j^ ^3 to 

be heard distinctly beyond the 4^orders of the yard, there was 
repeated applause. \At its close, fas was written at the time by 
one of the members of the Committee of Inspection, Christo- 
pher Marshall, then present, lit was accepted with general ap- 
plause and heartfelt satisfaction." The stalwart old Ringer* rang 
the great Bell once more. The audience dispersed to their honieiT] 
In the evening the regulators appointed on the 6th instant by the 
Inspection Committee, took down their late king's coat of arms 
from the liall in the State House where the said king's courts had 
been held to that hour, and carried them thence to the common, 
where piling casks one upon the other and these arms upon them, 
set all on fire and burned them to ashes amid the acclamations of 
a great crowd of citizens. It was a long day of sunshine, and 
"the night," as it was also written at the time, "was starlight and 
beautiful." 

hVom this date the Bell continued to record the events of the 
Revolution and the after time of peace, to 1855. ^t that date its 
n;ission was ending, the independence of the country had been 
firmly established and the great actors in the drama had passed 
away. 

Jefferson, Washington. Lee, Adams, hVanklin. Morris and 

* Andrew McNair— he rang the Bell during all the Revolutionary era— 1759-76— it was 
his last ringing of the Bell, his \vork terminated 16 September, 1776. 



LofC. 



THE LIBERTY BELL. 23 

Henry were dead, and of all of that immortal list of names, the 
signers of the Declaration, not one remained. John Marshall, 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, a sol- 
dier in that revolution, survived; he sat in judgment on the 
finished work and gave the measure of its strength and power for 
the ])cople. 




JOHN MARSHALL. 

July 8, 1835.— THE BELL TOLLED EOR THE LAST 
TLME. John Marshall died in Philadelphia on the 6th day of 
July, 1835; his remains were on the day of the anniversary of 
the first i)roclamation of the Declaration to the people borne to 
Virginia for burial, and during the funeral solemnities the bell, 
while slowly tolling, parted through its great side, and was silent 
henceforth, forever. 

It had lived out its life as men live out their lives, its work 
was done. It had called the people together many years, to pre- 
serve their rights under the British crown. It had rung out its 
clamorous defiance on that great day of the proclamation of the 



24 



THE LIBERTY BELL. 



Declaration of their independence. It had glorified all the anni- 
versaries of that independence. It had bewailed the great dead 
of the nation. Henceforth it remains in its ancient place, THE 
SILENT SYMBOL OF LIBERTY THROUGHOUT ALL 
THE LAND. 



THE NOTABLE EVENTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE 

BELL. 

August 2T, 1753, the Bell called the members of the Assembly 
together for the first time in the State House. 

IMay 17, 1755, again when the Assembly declared "they would not 
make laws by direction." 

February 3, 1757. when they sent "Mr. Fuanklin" "Homk to 
Encl.Wd" to scdicit redress for their grievances. 




BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

October zd, 1764, when they sent "Bknj.\.\iin Franklin, V.<.y 
'Great Bkitai.n'" to transact the affairs of the Province. 



THE LIBERTY BELL. 



25 



September 9, 1765, when the Assembly considered a resolution for 
a Congress of the colonies. A great landing stage of the Revolution. 

October 5, 1765, "muffled and tolled," it called the meeting together 
when the ship. Royal Charlotte, bearing stamps for Pennsylvania, New 
Jersey and Delaware reached Philadelphia. At this meeting the demand 
was made and enforced that the stamps should not be landed but trans- 
ferred to his Majesty's royal man-of-war, the "Sardine," to be returned 
to England. 

October 31, 1765, "muffled and tolled," it rang all day long when 
the Stamp Act was put in operation. Some of the people stayed in 
their houses mourning the death of liberty; others in the street, met 
together, and burned the stamp papers at the coffee-house. 

April 25, 1768, it assembled the people in the State House yard 
to protest against the Acts of Parliament closing the planing and slitting 
mills and the manufacture of iron and steel in Pennsylvania; the af^xing 
the King's arrow on pine trees, and the cutting ofif of the trade of the 
colonies in all parts of the world. 

July 30, 1768, it called a meeting in the State House yard in which 
it was said that "the Parliament of Great Britain has reduced the people 
here to the level of slaves." 

December 27, 1773, it called together the largest meeting that had 
ever assembled in the State House yard. At this meeting it was resolved 
that the ship "Polly," then coming up to the City with tea and a miscel- 
laneous cargo, should not be permitted to land. The committee ap- 
pointed at this meeting, followed by the citizens generally, sent the 
whole cargo with the tea, the captain and the consignee, from the wharf 
at Arch street, to its "old Rotterdam place in Leadenhall street, 
London." They would not have "the detestable tea funnelled down their 
throats with Parliament's duty mixed with it," they said at this meeting, 
and that "no power on earth had the right to tax them without their 
consent." 

June I, 1774- "muffled and tolled," it rang on the announcement of 
the closing of the port of Boston. A meeting held in the Square pro- 
tested against this action of Parliament. 

June 18, 1774, it called a meeting to relieve the Boston sufferers.* 

April 25, 1775, after the battle of Lexington, it called eight thousand 
of the citizens by actual computation, to the Square, who pledged them- 
selves to the cause of liberty. 

July 8, 1776, it proclaimed the Declaration of Independence. 

July 4. 1777. it commemorated the first anniversary of the passage 
of the Declaration. 

* The subscription raised in Philadelphia for this purpose aniounled to /"2000. The 
Friends of Philadelphia Meeting subscribed /'2540 in gold. York County ^246 8s. lod., 
Salem County ^420. The City and Liberties 1160 barrels of flour, 100 hogsheads of sugar 
also, went from the port of Philadelphia collected in St. Croix and looi barrels of rice from 
St. John's Parish, Georgia. 



26 



THE LIBERTY BELL. 



October 24, 1781, it announced the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at 
Yorktovvn.* 

November 2"], 1781, it welcomed the Commander-in-Chief of the 
armies of the Free States to the City. 

April 16, 1783, it proclaimed the Treaty of Peace. 

December 26, 1799, it rang during the funeral solemnities following 
the death of Washington. 

September 29, 1824, it welcomed Lafayette to the City. 

July 4, 1826, it ushered in the fiftieth anniversary of the passage 
of the Declaration, "the year of jubilee" written in the passage which 
gave its motto to the Bell. 

July 24, 1826, it commemorated the death of John Adams and 
Thomas Jefferson. 

July 21, 1834, it commemorated the death of Lafayette. 



THE ITINERARIES OF THE BELL. 

PHILADELPHIA TO ALLENTOWN, 1777. 




CARRYING THE BELL TO ALLENTOWN. 

The first journey of the Bell from the State House was for its 
preservation. The 26th of September. 1777. the headquarters of the 
British Army were at the State House and their y\rtillery Park was in 

* This surrender ended British domiiiatioti over the colonies. "The requisites for the 
campaign ending at Vorktown, were 70 to 80 pieces of battering cannon and 100 of field 
artillery, together with provisions and pay for the army. The expenditures on these accounts 
amounted to $1,400,000, and were provided for on the credit of Robert Morris, a merchant of 
Philadelphia. There was no money in the War Office chest The credit of the colonies 
was gone." Mr. Morris had given his name to the great Declaration ; he repeated the 
signature on bis notes during the Revolution to its close, which were all, inclusive of the 
above, at maturity, paid. His diary, now in the possession of the Government, is one long 
record of Iiis struggle to feed his troops and support Washington. 



THE LIBERTY BELL.- 27 

the State House yard. Some clays before the entry of this army into 
tlie City, the Bell had been taken down from the steeple. The repre- 
sentatives of the people had removed from the State House and the 
British Army from that time until the following spring, in rout and 
revelry ruled the City. The State House became a hospital for our 
wounded and a morgue for the dead. 

The Bell was conveyed with the whole heavy baggage of the Army 
in a continuous train of 700 wagons guarded by two hundred North 
Carolina and Virginia soldiers, to Allentowii. In a diary kept in Bethle- 
hem during the year 1777, this incident of the journey is preserved: 
"September 29, the wagon which conveyed the State House Bell broke 
down in the street and had to be unloaded." 

The Bell was away from the City from iSth September, 1777, to June 
27, 1778. Its itinerary was a very brief one: Philadelphia to German- 
town, to Bethlehem, to Allentown. While in Allentown it was in the 
Zion's Church. 



PHILADELPHIA TO NEW ORLEANS, 1885. 

Leave Piiil.vdelpiiia, Pa., Friday, January 23, at 10 A. M., arrive 
Lancaster, Friday, January 23d, 12 IM.; arrive Harrisburg, Friday, Jan- 
uary 23d, at 1.20 P. M.; arrive at Altoona, Friday, January 23d. at 5 
P. M.; arrive at Pittsburg, Friday, January 23d, at 9.50 P. M.; arrive 
at Columbus, Ohio, Saturday, January 24th, at 5.30 A. M.; arrive at 
Cincinnati, Saturday, January 24th, at 10.30 A. M.; arrive at Louisville, 
Ky., January 24th, at 6 P. ]\I.; arrive Nashville, Tenn., Sunday, January 
25th, at 8 A. M.; arrive at Birmingham, Ala.. Sunday, January 25th, at 
3 P. M.; arrive at Montgomery, Sunday, January 25th, at 6 P. \[.; 
arrive at ^lobile, Alonday, January 26th, at 8 A. M.: arrive at New Or- 
leans, La., Monday, January 26th, at 12 M. 

This itinerary was marked by patriotic demonstrations in the cities 
and at all the intermediate stations — ringing of church bells, booming 
cannon, music, shouting of the people. When darkness came on and all 
through the night in Western Pennsylvania bonfires on the hills, furnace 
fires, streams of flame from the wells, long lines of torches at the sta- 
tions, lighted its way. When the morning broke crowds of people were 
waiting, at the stations, and all through the day it was the same- 
one continuous ovation along the swiftly-moving line of its journey, 
night and day. 

Never will be forgotten by those who made the journey, the groups 
of farmers with their wives and children, the miners with their lamps, 
the groups of black laborers standing together in silence, conscious 
that the mission of the Bell was for them in the later time as it was 
for us in the Revolution. 

Beauvoir., the home of the ex-President of the Confederacy, was the 
last stopping place of its journey; Mr. Davis came from a sick bed to 



28 THE LIBERTY BELL. 

look on the Bell for the last time. "I thank you," he said, "Mayor Guil- 
lotte, and you, gentlemen of the Committee, for this privilege, and most 
sincerely I trust that your anticipations of the harmonizing tendencies 
of this journey may be in every respect fully realized. I believe," he 
continued, "that the time has come when reason should be substituted 
for passion, and when men should be able to do justice to each other." 
Turning from the assemblage to the Bell, he said: "You, sacred organ, 
gave voice to the proudest declaration that a handful of men ever made 
when they faced the greatest military power on the globe, when they 
declared to all the world their inalienable rights, and staked life, liberty, 
and property in defense of their declaration. Then it was with your 
clear tones you sent notice to all who were willing to live or die for 
liberty and felt that the day was at hand when every patriot must do a 
patriot's duty." Bending his uncovered head before it, he said: "Glo- 
rious old Bell! the son of a Revolutionary soldier bows in reverence 
before you." 

From Beauvoir the car went on directly to New Orleans — the city of 
the final struggle with the British throne — where the day of its arrival 
was made a legal holiday, and a great multitude of people welcomed 
its coming. 

It was accompanied by Wm. B. Smith, then the Mayor of Piiiladel- 
phia, with a committee of Councils as its custodian through the whole 
journey. 



PHILADELPHIA TO CHICAGO, 1893. 

Leave Philadelphia, Pa., Tuesday, April 25th, at 10 A. M., arrive 
Harrisburg, Tuesday, April 25th, at 1.15 P. M.; arrive Erie, Wednesday, 
April 26th, 4 A. M.; arrive Corry, 1.30 P. M.; arrive Oil City, Wednes- 
day, April 26th, 3.25 P. M.; arrive Pittsburg, Wednesday, April 26th, 
7.30 P. M.; arrive Cleveland, Thursday, April 27th, 12 M.; arrive Colum- 
bus, Thursday, April 27th, 8 P. M.; arrive Indianapolis, Friday, April 
28th, 5 A. M.; arrive Chicago, Friday, April 28th, 9 P. M. 

As it was on the former journey, from the day the Bell left its 
place in the Hall of our Independence, marked by a great demon- 
stration of patriotic pride and solicitude for its care, to the day it 
arrived in Chicago, the journey was a continuous ovation, crowded 
with never-to-be-forgotten incidents at every stopping place along the 
whole thousand miles of the counties and States which were, when it 
first rang, one unbroken wilderness. There were the same groups of 
farmers and miners; the same, and even greater, crowds at the stations, 
but more notably among them on this occasion were the school children, 
many thousands in every State along the line of the journey; some 
to follow it with longing eyes as it swiftly passed, some to surround 
it when it stopped and, with armfuls of flowers, to wreathe around it 
the expression of their childish love and reverence. The air was filled 
with their songs at some of these stations. 



THE LIBERTY BELL. 29 

Indianapolis was the last stopping place before entering Chicago, 
and here the then last survivor of the ex-Presidents of the nation wel- 
comed the Bell. Standing in the midst of a great group of these chil- 
dren — twelve thousand of them, of the common schools of that city — 
Mr. Harrison said to the Committee: "I thank you for the privilege 
you have given us to see this sacred Bell, and rejoice with you that the 
patriotic demonstrations of this journey have been greater even than 
the former. This I believe, gentlemen," he said, "is the result of 
the marvelous development of the general education of the incoming 
generation, upon which rests the perpetuity of our institutions them- 
selves, for what the fortress was to former civilizations the school 
house is to ours; established in every part of our country and for 
every one of its population, the flag of the nation floating over every 
one." 

Mr. Harrison then, looking out over the great throng of the people 
surrounding the central group of the eager, happy children, said: 
"This old Bell was cast in England, but it was recast in America. It 
was when this was done that it clearly and to all the world proclaimed 
the right of self government and the equal rights of man, and therein 
it is a type of what our institutions are doing for the immigration from 
all lands who heard its tones over the water a century ago, and who 
come here to be recast, as it were, into the citizenship of the nation. 
I will say no more. The Bell itself is here, repeating to us through 
all its silence the great story of the nation." 

At Chicago the final demonstration was among the greatest of the 
events of that assemblage of the nations. Its return to Philadelphia 
was marked by the most impressive ceremonies, the military and civic 
bodies of the city and the whole municipality being represented in the 
escort bearing it home. 



PHILADELPHIA TO ATLANTA, 1895. 

Leave Philadelphia, Pa., Friday. October 4th. 1895, 8.00 A. M., 
pass Chester, Pa., 8.31 A. M.; arrive Wilmington, Del., 8.53 A. M.; 
arrive Elkton, Md., 9.22 A M; arrive Baltimore, Md., 10.44 A. M.; arrive 
Washington, D. C, 12.17 P. M.; arrive Alexandria, Va., 2.15 P. M.; 
arrive Quantico, Va., 3.10 P. M.; arrive Fredericksburg, Va., 3.53 P. M.; 
arrive Milford, Va., 5.15 P. M.; arrive Doswell, Va., 5.52 P. M.; arrive 
Ashland, Va., 6.07 P. M.; arrive Richmond, Va., 7.13 P. M. Saturday, 
October 5th, 1895, leave Richmond, Va., 8.00 A. M.: arrive Petersburg, 
Va., 9.00 A. M.; arrive Nottoway Court House, Va., 11.20 A. ]\L; arrive 
Crewe, Va.. 11.40 .A.. M.; arrive Farmville, Va., 12.35 P. ]\I.; arrive 
Lynchburg, Va., 2.30 P. M.; arrive Bedford, Va., 4.25 P. M.; arrive 
Roanoke, Va., 5.40 P. M.; arrive Christiansburg, Va., 9.10 A. M.; arrive 
Wythcville. Va.. 11.00 A. M.; arrive Glade Spring, Va., 12.30 P. M.; 
East Radford, Va., 9.40 A. M.; arrive Wytheville, Va., 11.00 A. M.; 



30 



THE LIBERTY BELL. 



arrive Glade Spring, Va.. '2.30 P. ^L ; arrive Bristol. Tcnn., eastern time, 
1.30 P. M.; central time, 2.30 P. ]\L ; arrive Johnson City, Tcnn., 3.40 
P. M.; arrive Greenville, Tenn., 4.47 P. M.; arrive Morristown, Tenn., 
5.50 P. M.; arrive Knoxville, Tenn., 7.00 P. M. Monday, October 7th, 
arrive Loudon, Tenn.. 8.50 A. M.; arrive Athens, Tenn., 9.35 A. M.; 
arrive Cleveland. Tenn., 10.25 A. I\L ; arrive Chattanooga, Tenn., 11.30 
A. ]\L: arrive Dalton. Ga., 8.50 A. M.; arrive Rome, Ga.. 10.45 A. M.; 
arrive Atlanta, Ga. (central time), 2.00 P. M., October 8th. 

Going- and returning the Bell received from every city equal 
honor. Men, women and children filled every cross-road. At 
Petersburg they were officially welcomed. At Roanoke, all busi- 
ness was suspended; many thousands were gathered there and 
a platoon of soldiers guarded the Bell during the nig-ht. At 
Bedford, the whole population were grouped beneath spreading- 
trees that lined the railroad track. At Lynchburg, the Council of 
the city received the Bell. A cannon gave the presidential salute. 
Twenty thousand people were gathered there in holiday attire 
from all the surrounding country. At Rome, the children were 
given a holiday and a great throng with flags and music wel- 
comed the Bell. At Richmond, the capital of the State, a great ova- 
tion was given, going and returning. At Greensboro, two thou- 
sand school children welcomed it. It was taken to Guilford Court 
House battle ground. At Athens, Kno>:ville, and Chattanooga, 
these welcomings were repeated. At Cleveland, the girl gradu- 
ates, wearing gowns and mortar boards, one hundred of them, 
received the Bell. Seldom has a living man, whatever his place, 
been welcomed as this mute witness of our nation's great deliver- 
ance. At Atlanta, the streets through which it passed were 
thronged with, people; the Bell itself was covered with flowers 
thrown upon il during the route. As it neared the grounds it 
passed through a solid wall of cheering people. Upon its entry 
into the grounds, Piedmont Park, it was accompanied by a 
military procession; the Pennsylvania JUiilding, before which it 
was placed, was thronged with children; children were clamber- 
ing over the park ground fences; they were on the streets, in the 
trees, and everywhere where foothold could be obtained; the 
roadway was so thronged here that the wagon passed along very 
slowly. Old peojjle were among the groups whose grandfathers 
had been in the Revolution that Bell had proclaimed. So many 
thousands together made a most memorable spectacle. At the 
stand a prayer was said very earnestly and solemnly; the children, 



THE LIBERTY BELL. 



3« 




THE VAST THRONG PASSING BY LIBERTY B EL L IN ITS N CW RESTI NG PL A CE AT PlEO Wl ONT PARK. 



two thousand of them, broke out into songs. Words of welcome, 
appropriate to the occasion, were given by Porter King, the 
Mayor of the city, who presented Charles F. Warwick, Mayor 
of Philadelphia, as the custodian of the Bell. Mr. Warwick said, 
in the course of an address remarkable for its earnestness and elo- 
quence: "We hold this Bell in trust for the nation; we 
confide it to your care." Governor Atkinson, in his reply, said 
"that that trust would be well reposed on them; that none were 
more sensible than the people of that State that in their keeping 
was the most precious relic of the nation." The formal cere- 
monies over, the women and children were given the first place 
around it; among these, a i)lind boy was lifted to it and read 
witli his fingers the inscription. 



301 

. TO CAT. OIV. 
19 1901 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 314 887 7 



Note. — The Resolutions for Independence on p. 14 are printed 
from the original copy now in the Mviseum of Revolutionary Relics in 
the State House. 

The Declaration of Independence on p. 17 is printed from the 
original Broadside from which it was read in the State House yard, July 
8, 1776, and now in the possession of Mrs. Charles Custis Harrison. 

This Declaration with the style and title made "unanimous," was 
on the 19th of July ordered to be engrossed and signed by the members. 
This was done August 2d. Some signatures were, however, appended 
at a later date — Matthew Thornton and Thomas McKean among these 
The engrossed copy, with the whole number — 56 signatures— is now in 
the Department of State, Washington. 

"The notable events," p. 10 and p. 24, and "The Proclamation," p. 20, 
are compiled entirely from original records, documents and accounts 
written at the time of their occurrence. 

CHARLES S. KEYSER. 



